Launch of Ros Kidd's 'Black lives, government lies' (2nd edition)

Launch of Ros Kidd's 'Black
lives, government lies' (2nd edition)

Speech by Dr William Jonas
AM, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner,
12 February 2003

Acknowledgement of
traditional owners and those present.

It is my pleasure
to be here tonight to launch the second edition of 'Black lives, government
lies' by Dr Rosalind Kidd.

Dr Kidd has made
an enormously valuable contribution to our understanding of the history
of relations between Indigenous peoples in Queensland and government.
Because of her commitment and tenacity in obtaining access to, and then
exposing the contents of, government records about the administration
of Indigenous peoples' lives, we now know far more about the precise details,
the extent and the nature of the control exercised by governments in Queensland
over the lives of Indigenous peoples over the past 100 years than we otherwise
would.

That is not to say
that there is still not a long way to go to ensure that the historical
record fully reflects the reality of the lives of Indigenous peoples in
this state. And it certainly does not mean that the consequences
of this history have been grappled with and dealt with in an appropriate
way by government. These are two issues I want to talk briefly about further
tonight in the context of Dr Kidd's book.

This book, which
vividly brings to life the connection between the devastating impact of
this control and current day circumstances of Indigenous peoples, is just
as - if not more - timely and pertinent as it was when the first edition
was published.

In my view, the past
five years or so have seen a sustained attack on what are seen as attempts
over the past 20 to 30 years to 'correct' or more fully reflect the historical
record. The past year, for example, has seen a revival of a fairly aggressive
debate about the extent and nature of frontier violence in this country.
In this debate, historians are identified as if they were politicians
- are they of the left or the right? - and are then pitted against one
another based on their perceived, but perhaps not actual, ideological
leanings. Words and findings have been distorted to fit ideological straightjackets.
The attempts of some historians to dispute the findings of their peers
have taken on a gladiatorial, combative tone - they are battles to the
death with the reputations of fellow historians the prize.

The result is an
'all or nothing' approach to history - with both the left and the right
accusing each other of being 'revisionists', and with no grey areas, no
ambiguities and no room for middle ground. A steady movement towards a
collective understanding of the history of relations with Indigenous peoples
in this country has begun to be fractured and polarized, with history
continually being marginalised as if there is some point at which there
has been no continuity between past and present.

In 'Black lives,
government lies' Dr Kidd expertly comments on this critical problem in
the context of reconciliation and debates about the 'stolen generations'.
This book demonstrates that there is indeed no gap between the historic
deeds of previous governments and present circumstances.

The book vividly
exposes a system whereby the Queensland government exercised control over
every aspect of the lives of Indigenous peoples for over a century and
maintained an extensive administrative record of their actions. As she
says in the introduction to the book, 'the nightmare of interventions
both petty and momentous, the machinery of continuous bureaucratic monitoring,
produced an enormous amount of paperwork'.

The book methodically
details - from government records - a range of abuses, neglect, deprivation
and exploitation experienced by Indigenous peoples from the beginning
of the 20th century into the 1980s. From the dormitory system, the placement
of Indigenous children into work, through to the system of education and
the inability to respond to threats to health, the book paints a disturbing
picture of government neglect and inaction.

Time and again, the
book returns to one basic conclusion about the nature of government administration
of Indigenous affairs. It doesn't matter whether the issue is the unsafe
housing conditions, the lack of resources which left many children starving,
the avoidable outbreaks of disease, the labour exploitation or the failure
to properly account for Indigenous peoples' wages and savings. In each
instance, the government records of the day show unequivocally that they
knew what was happening.

As she says about
the dormitory system of missions, reserves and settlements, 'there is
no doubt that governments have known for decades of the physical, social
and psychological damage inherent in the dormitory system, damage entrenched
by the deliberate refusal to budget even for basic foodstuffs, safe water,
clothing, sanitation, bedding, washing facilities, schooling and social
amenities… dormitory confinement was a perverse environment which
wreaked appalling damage on personal and social development. Governments
knew this, yet allowed it to continue' (p19).

The same conclusion
is reached about the lack of appropriate health and sanitation conditions
in communities; the widespread exploitation of labour on missions, settlements
and in rural industry; and the exploitation by the government itself of
Aboriginal savings through the use of trust funds.

As Dr Kidd continually
emphasises, this happened under the rubric of acting in peoples 'best
interests' and with benign intent. The book challenges what is perhaps
the mainstream view of this history. It demonstrates simply and clearly
that it is untenable to suggest that successive Queensland governments
have merely been bit players, whose role in shaping the current parlous
state of Indigenous communities across the state is of only minor consequence.

The book rightfully
identifies Queensland governments and administrators as the central influence
in affecting the status of Indigenous communities, and in showing continuity
to the present. As she says in the introduction, 'I wanted to uncover
other truths, to ask a different set of questions, to start with a different
set of assumptions, to expose this untold story. My path was not the seamless
political packaging from benign (if misguided) practices of the past linked
to the funding generosity of the present, defining Aboriginal conditions
as a continuing Aboriginal problem.'

This leads me to
question - what are the consequences of this history that has been so
expertly exposed in this book? I am sure that most of you are aware of
the current offer from the Queensland government for 'stolen wages'. I
have been an outspoken critic of the approach which the government has
taken. The book we are launching here tonight particularly relates to
two aspects of this current debate we are having about stolen wages.

First, the troubles
that Dr Kidd talks of in gaining access to official government records
of what happened remains. A so-called 'generous' offer of reparations
has been made to Indigenous communities, who have limited access to the
records which reveal the true status of their circumstances. The government
today continues a long tradition of Queensland governments seeking to
manage or perhaps manufacture the truth.

The government's
offer does not appropriately address the issue of public acknowledgement
and of correcting the historical record of what has happened with the
wages and savings of Indigenous peoples in this state over the past century.
This remains an issue that needs to be given great consideration as government
and Indigenous communities begin to consideration what will be the appropriate
response and settlement for the welfare fund in the coming year.

Second, what Dr Kidd's
book shows is that while the government presents its offer for stolen
wages as an act of reconciliation, of good intent and of kindness, it
is in fact paying back Aboriginal people what is rightfully theirs. This
fundamentally affects how we view the offer by the government - what is
presented as an act of reconciliation is in fact a continued exploitation
of Indigenous peoples; a cheap way of paying off a moral, and in all likelihood
legal, encumbrance on the government.

We are challenged
to consider these issues when we read 'Black lives, government lies' and
I would say that Dr Kidd has succeeded in asking different questions and
challenging assumed truths.

To conclude, we currently
live in a world that is full of uncertainty and fear. The war on terror
has exposed dangerous and undesirable characteristics in many Australians,
with heightened suspicion of people of different racial and ethnic groups,
and a reduced level of tolerance and acceptance of difference.

The plight of Indigenous
peoples in this country has been affected by this change in the national
mood. The reductive, minimal approach to Indigenous issues that has been
adopted by the Commonwealth government has seen reconciliation and concepts
of social justice reduced to and defined by experiences of disadvantage
as if they existed in an a-historical vacuum. Connections between past
experiences and present disadvantage and the denial of rights are treated
as separate and unrelated. They are not.

Dr Kidd is to be
commended for so vividly demonstrating these connections between past
and present, and for outlining some of the challenges that remain in addressing
unfinished business. I am pleased to commend to you and to officially
launch 'Black lives, government lies' by Dr Rosalind Kidd.

Thank you.

Last
updated 19 February 2003.